Sharing Books
Using Books to Develop Language
Sharing books with children helps to inspire a lifelong love of reading. Reading can be a fun thing to do together and have a positive impact later in life, on things like school exam results, pupil wellbeing, and career outcomes.
What are the benefits of sharing books and stories with children?
Time spent reading together is not just a great opportunity for parents and carers to bond with their children - it helps with brain development too, which is particularly important in the first two years of life when babies and toddlers are making lots of connections within their brains.
As well as helping very young children to start to talk, reading books aloud together introduces new words, structures and language patterns that help form the building blocks for literacy later in life.
Evidence shows that children who were read to regularly when they were five-years-old performed better in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16, compared to those who weren’t read to at a young age!
The National Literacy Trust (NLT) has these 10 hints for sharing books with your children.
Find a quiet place. Turn off the TV , radio and other devices to help your child listen to you read without any distractions.
Try to always have a book in your bag. Reading together can help pass the time on a long journey. It can be very calming and will help babies recognise the sound of your voice.
You don’t always need to read the words in books. Looking at and talking about the pictures is a great way to encourage your child to enjoy books. If you speak a language other than English, talk about the pictures and story in your own language.
Give your child time to respond to your chat about the book. For babies and toddlers, this could be with a babble, arm waving or finger pointing. Watching and listening shows how interested you are in hearing what children have to say and encourages communication development.
Be natural and clear when you read. You can also use funny voices for characters, or a sing-song voice for words or phrases that are repeated throughout the book. After reading a book several times, younger children will anticipate hearing the change in tone.
Don’t be afraid to use props. Using puppets or a favourite cuddly toy will help bring the words alive and add actions to your words.
Link what you see or read about in books with real-life. If there’s a picture of a dog in a book, talk about a dog you know. Or if you see a dog in the park or on the street, you could remind your child of the dog in their favourite book.
Don’t put pressure on your child to name pictures or objects in books. Point to things and name them yourself, and if they respond, praise them and say the word again.
Little and often is best. Try introducing a special daily story session where you can snuggle up and enjoy a book together, like at bedtime or bath time.
Share favourite books again and again. Repetition helps children to understand and remember the language they hear. It’s not unusual for young children to want to hear the same book over and over.
Mrs Daniels Top Picks 
I absolute
ly love this book! It helps children key vocabulary, with one hundred everyday words illustrated in busy scenes and with labelled pictures.
The illustrations are so fun and colourful, with lots to talk about. There is even a little yellow duck to find on each page. Billiant for young children and children who are learning English as an additional language.
'Where's Spot?' was the first ever lift-the-flap book. My children lov
ed it and I share this with children at Mapledene regularly.
This is the perfect first book for little ones - the playful text is a wonderful incentive to read and respond together, and the hide-and-seek flaps encourage curiosity and interactivity.
The story also introduces lots of lovely language concepts to describe where the animals are hiding.
As with all Julia Donaldson stories, this book is amazing.
The colourful illustrations and fun story always seem to capture the attention of children, and they always find the fun, rhyming words very entertaining.
The book teaches valuable lessons about friendship and teamwork, making it not only a fun read, but also an educational one. Highly recommended!